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We say...\nWho's paying for state mandates?

Posted: June 5, 2011 - 6:50pm

Once again, the state Legislature drops a half-measure mandate on South Carolina’s local governments with no visible means of support.

Starting next month, South Carolinians will be prohibited from dumping their old TVs and computers in landfills. Local governments and the manufacturers will be required to recycle and recover junked electronics.

The sponsor, Rep. Dwight Loftis, R-Greenville, said the law is intended to reduce the amount of trash in landfills at a time when electronic parts are much more valuable on a recovered basis than they were a decade ago.

That’s a reasonable idea. It’s good for the planet. We’re all about recycling.

However, local governments and the manufacturers are still waiting for the state to tell them what to do with all that “e-trash.”

When the S.C. General Assembly finished its regular business year Thursday, lawmakers had failed to approve the regulations attached to the “Manufacturer Responsibility and Consumer Convenience Information Technology Equipment Collection and Recovery Act.”

The regulations lay out industry fees, manufacturers’ annual reports, standards of operations for the recovery facilities and other basics that make the new law enforceable.

“The landfill ban on electronics will still go into effect, but we’ll have a limited ability to build a program,” said Kent Coleman, director of the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control’s mining and solid waste division. “And the local governments wouldn’t be able to get the funding they need to build the infrastructure for storage and transporting.”

Local governments already are strapped for cash as state and federal funding evaporates and more and more pressure is placed on property taxes for basic services. And local governments struggle to pay for programs that state lawmakers see fit to mandate but aren’t interested in funding.

It’s not about whether the programs are a good idea, but about who pays the freight. Good ideas are relatively easy up there in Columbia, especially for those who don’t have to take any responsibility for them.

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